Yirrganydji

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Coordinates: 16°45′S 145°40′E / 16.750°S 145.667°E / -16.750; 145.667
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Yirrganydji people
Aka: Irukandji
Wet Tropics BioRegion
Language
Language Family:Pama–Nyungan
Language Branch:Yidinic
Language Group:Djabugay
Group Dialect:Yirrgay
Area (approx. 500 km²)
BioRegion:Wet Tropics
Location:Far North Queensland
Coordinates:16°45′S 145°40′E / 16.750°S 145.667°E / -16.750; 145.667
Rivers
Other Geological:
Urban Areas:

The Yirrganydji (Irrukandji) people are an

Cairns, Queensland to Port Douglas. Their traditional lifestyle was that of fishers along this coastal strip and around the river mouths, islands and seas between the Barron River and Port Douglas
.

Language

The Irukandji spoke

Yirrgay, one of the five dialects of the language group generally known as Djabugay.[a] These dialects indicate that Djabugay was genetically related to Yidiny, with a lexical overlap of 53%.[3]

Country

Irukandji country, according to

Yidinji people to their immediate south, while, northwards, one encountered, in geographic order, Guluy, Ngakali and finally Djabugay. The Bulway-speakers lay to their west, from Woree to Mareeba.[5][b]

History

The Irukandji as a distinct tribal identity were close to extinction by the end of the 19th century.

payu hut at the northern end of the Cairns Esplanade.[8]
Writing in 1974 Tindale stated:

'The term Irukandji for the people on the coast near Redlynch in the area around Cairns has been in dispute because of their early demise as a tribe. By 1952 remembrance of their existence had almost died out and a mixed Tjapukai and Mamu group, from higher up the Barron River, and from the south had usurped their territory. They call themselves the Djumbandji. The coastal Irukandji were said to have been a taller people than the rain forest dwellers. In 1964 Jack Doolan questioned several informants, none from the Cairns area, who believed the Irukandji did not exist. They based their ideas on information that irukandji meant “from the north.” They suggested that if a Keramai (Giramai) or a Mamu was questioned about the country from which a northern stranger might have come he would simply refer to him as an Irukandji, that is, a “northerner.” In similar fashion he might refer to a man from the west as gambilbara, a rain forest man, or from the east as a djindigal (Jindigal).' [9]

Modern times

In recent times there have been clashes in claims advanced respectively by the Yirrganydji Aboriginal Tribal Corporation (Dawul Wuru Aboriginal Corporation) and the Djabugay Aboriginal Tribal Corporation, the former insisting that any development projects by the Djabugay in the historic territories of their Irukandji forebears, require their consent and participation.[10]

The Irukandji jellyfish are named after Irrukandji country.

Alternative names

  • Irakanji, Yirkandji, Yirkanji.
  • Yirgay.
  • Yettkie. (Parry-Okeden 1897, misreading of Yerrkie.)
  • Illagona.
  • Wongulli. (camp toponym, at Cairns' southern city limit (1974)
  • Dungara. (horde on Lower Barron River)
  • Tingaree.
  • Dungarah.
  • Dingal.[4]

Notes

  1. ^ The other three were Bulway, Guluy, and Njagali.[2]
  2. Tyabogai-tyanyi, a branch of whom on the Barron River are known as the Nyakali. On the south side of the Barron River are the Bulwandyi; low down on the Barron River are the Yirkandyi.'[6]

Citations

  1. ^ Bottoms 1999, p. ?.
  2. ^ Dixon 2002, p. xxxii.
  3. ^ Dixon 1977, pp. 6–7.
  4. ^ a b c Tindale 1974, p. 169.
  5. ^ Dixon 1977, p. 5.
  6. ^ McConnel 1939, p. 67.
  7. ^ Parry-Okeden 1897.
  8. ^ Cairns Post 1930, p. 4.
  9. ^ Tindale 1974, p. 123.
  10. ^ Henry 2012, p. 201.

Sources

  • Bottoms, Timothy (1999). Djabudai Country: An Aboriginal History of Tropical North Queensland.
    ISBN 978-1-865-08031-4
    .
  • ISBN 978-0-521-21462-9
    .
  • ISBN 978-0-521-47378-1
    .
  • Henry, Rosita (2012). Performing Place, Practising Memories: Aboriginal Australians, Hippies and the State.
    ISBN 978-0-857-45508-6
    .
  • "King "Billy Jager" dead". The Cairns Post. 11 March 1930. p. 4 – via Trove.
  • JSTOR 40327744
    .
  • Parry-Okeden, William E. (1897). Report on the North Queensland aborigines and the native police (and map). Brisbane: Parliament of Queensland.
  • Richards, Francis (1926). Customs and language of the Western Hodgkinson aboriginals. Vol. 8. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. pp. 249–265.
  • ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6
    .

External links
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